Immigration activists rally in Washington D.C.

Immigration activists rally in Washington D.C.

A child raises her hand in protest as she and her mother join demonstrators to rally and march calling for “an end to family detention” and in opposition to the immigration policies of the Trump administration in Washington, D.C., June 28, 2018. (Photo: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

Several hundred activists gathered for an act of “mass civil disobedience” in the U.S. capital on Thursday ahead of weekend protests across the country against the Trump administration’s immigration policy.

“Say it loud, say it clear, immigrants are welcome here,” the crowd of about 500 protesters, including many white-clad women, chanted as they began marching down Pennsylvania Avenue toward the U.S. Department of Justice.

Women’s March, a movement that began when U.S. President Donald Trump was inaugurated in 2017, then spread internationally, has called on women to risk arrest at Thursday’s protest.

As the marchers passed the Trump International Hotel, which is run by the president’s company, they chanted, “Shame! Shame! Shame!”

Some organizers said they would risk arrest by ignoring any orders to disperse that the Capitol police might issue once their march arrives at the U.S. Congress. (Reuters)